August 4, 2026
Latest IFA Updates
The Public Does Not Need a Paved Road to Visit Mountain Tea State Forest!
The state has preliminarily selected a plan to triple the footprint of an existing county road leading to the Mountain Tea State Forest in northeastern Brown County. This is one of four alternatives the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have been considering to improve access to this state forest, an objective for which the state appropriated funds sought by DNR and the Brown County Commissioners in 2023.
Mountain Tea State Forest, created in 2020 from Yellowwood State Forest, is a 1,200-acre expanse of wild hardwood forest that ranges from 1,013 feet at the top of Mountain Tea to 630 feet in forested swampland along the North Fork of Salt Creek, which crosses the western portion of the State Forest. The 100-plus-foot tulip poplars, oaks, beeches, hickories, maples, and snags on ridge tops attest to a lack of logging and to an older, natural condition that is becoming rare in the state forests. This condition supports bobcats, coyotes, minks, a myriad of hawks, owls, bats, deer, wild turkeys and other predator and prey species, and diverse communities of invertebrates, forest songbirds, amphibians, and reptiles.
This bobcat, coyote, and state-endangered timber rattlesnake (below left) are residents of Mountain Tea State Forest (below right). Animal photos: John Mueller; forest photo: Jeff Stant.
This spring, IFA and others proposed setting aside the entire Mountain Tea SF as a “State Wild Area” to conserve its pristine natural condition for primitive recreation. Adequate public access should be provided to this State Forest. However, neighbors say this objective can be accomplished with two steps: 1) widening the gravel on Pumpkin Ridge Road by six feet and adding a few pull-offs to accommodate larger vehicles; and 2) installing a trailhead along Salt Creek Road, along with a trail and footbridge over the North Fork of Salt Creek, to connect to Mountain Tea’s trails from the west side of the State Forest. This would cost well under $1 million and be far less destructive than spending $7 million in state funds to build a 0.9-mile-long paved county highway from Hoover Road to Mountain Tea’s northeast boundary. It would also ensure that Mountain Tea remains a wild sanctuary for hiking, primitive camping, wildlife watching, hunting, and mushroom picking rather than logging.
Mountain Tea State Forest is above on the left. The diagonal line through its center is a utility easement. Pumpkin Ridge Road, above on the right and marked “B” on the left, is a 12 ft wide gravel lane. The state and Brown County want to widen it to accommodate an 18 ft. road, shoulders, drainage ditches and cleared right-of-way approximately 40 ft. wide as depicted in the schematic below presented by INDOT at a July 16 public meeting. Their $6,950,000 price tag suggests the new road will be paved. Neighbors to Mtn. Tea are proposing far cheaper improvements to provide access from both points A and B in above left, while maintaining the natural condition of the forest and its approaches. Photo by Jeff Stant. Map (edited by Jeff Stant) and Schematic are from the state of IN.
The state’s engineering firm (Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly), which is contracted to build the new road, is accepting public comments on this project until August 17, 2026. If you care about the wild forests that remain in Indiana, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL OR LETTER BY AUGUST 17 to:
MountainTea@cmtengr.com
or:
Nick Batta
CMT
8490 Purdue Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268
Urge INDOT to maintain Pumpkin Ridge as a gravel road, widening it by six feet in places but keeping as many trees as possible, and installing pull-overs for larger vehicles to pass. Urge the DNR to build a trail head, trail, and foot bridge to improve access from Salt Creek Road on the western side of Mountain Tea State Forest and to manage Mountain Tea as a State Wild Area where primitive recreation is emphasized instead of logging. The savings can be reprogrammed to complete the Indian Hill crossing for the Tecumseh Trail and to support other transportation projects that promote recreation in Brown County.
Please copy and paste your email or letter to Governor Braun at the following: https://in.accessgov.com/gov/Forms/Page/gov/share-an-opinion/1 and email a copy to Tim Clark, President of the Brown County Commissioners, at clarkt@browncounty-in.gov.
Brown County Commissioners Ask Houchin, Young, and Banks to Expand the Deam and Create the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area
After taking testimony at two public meetings, Brown County Commissioners voted on July 15 to send a detailed letter to Indiana’s 9th District Representative Erin Houchin and the state’s U.S. Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks, requesting that they reintroduce the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area and Wilderness Establishment Act. The legislation, introduced by Governor Mike Braun as a Senator in 2023 and 2024 and by Rep. Houchin in 2024, would more than double the Charles Deam Wilderness to 28,253 acres and establish the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area on 29,382 acres of adjacent land in the Hoosier National Forest. In addition to protecting Monroe Reservoir, a sole-source drinking water supply for 145,000 people and hundreds of businesses, the legislation would establish the largest area of protected public forest in the states of Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois and make southcentral Indiana a go-to destination for wilderness recreation in the lower Midwest.
IFA thanks Brown County Commission President Tim Clark and his colleague, Commissioner Ron Sanders, for their votes to send the letter, which will carry weight given that most of the Deam Wilderness expansion area is in Brown County. Commissioner Kevin Patrick voted against sending the letter but did not explain why.
Clark can be thanked at clarkt@browncounty-in.gov and Sanders at sandersr@browncounty-in.gov.
